Douglass North questions the assumptions of ergodicity and economic rationality which came to dominate economics; this paper places the emergence of these notions in historical context. North stresses the role of institutions in dealing with a shift from uncertainties in the physical environment...

In economic development, long-run structural change among the three main sectors of an economy follows a typical pattern with the primary sector (agriculture, mining) first dominating, followed by the secondary sector (manufacturing) and finally by the tertiary sector (services) in terms of...

In this paper we examine the effects that user-producer interactions have on innovation and the dynamics of market structure of two vertically related industries under alternative contractual regimes. The existence of advantages stemming from users-producers relationships introduces a dynamic...